Do forum members, with diesel boats, disconnect their kill cords from the kill switch when they stop out at sea? I am thinking of when taking a lunch break, chilling out or the like.

If I am at sea with company then I do not use the kill cord, reason for this is simple, if you stop the engine after a long run without "running the engine down" that is allowing the oil to cool the turbo bearings by running the engine at idle for a short time, (I run down for arround 5-6 mins ) you run the risk of destroying the turbo bearings and that is a very expensive item to have to replace.

Irrespective of petrol or diesel engine, You should allways test your kill chord at the start of the day to make sure it is going to work. After that why else does the manufacturer put a stop position on the key?

Pulling the killchord every time you want to shut down seems unnecessary IMHO.

On a slightly different note. Any ideas why my kill switch doesn't work? I have been using the kill cord and only thought to check the other day, and the engine continues running no matter what position the switch is in? It is a quicksilver remote unit with the type of kill switch that you slip a loop from the kill cord over and then flick the switch to hold it in place.

Take a peek in the control unit. The switch has two wires on it. One wire goes to negative ground, the other is connected to the CDI pack. When the switch is on (chord out) it shorts the CDI output to ground.
Beware, you can get a nasty jolt from the ignition terminal, it bloody hurts.

I was driving a charter boat in Cowes last year it had an Opti 225 and the kill switch disintegrated . The engine duly stopped I pulled the cable off the kill switch and it duly started. I suspect that you have a cable fault or the relay in the engine has gone.

Either way don't drive that boat without an operationg kill switch cos those opti's have a kick in the tail and could have you out of the boat and at this time of the year you may well be in trouble!

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The kill switch on the opti is part of the normal stop circiut(im sure) therefore its most likely a connection in the box.Is the kill switch part of the box or is it remotely mounted away from control box?
Paul

The kill switch on the opti is part of the normal stop circiut(im sure) therefore its most likely a connection in the box.Is the kill switch part of the box or is it remotely mounted away from control box?
Paul

Hi, sorry for the delay in replying to this. It is part of the control box, although it does look like it would clip off?